Let’s be honest. We all struggle with prayer. Our personal prayer lives are not what we wish they were. We know we should pray more but we are tired and overwhelmed and have so much to do. If your prayer life is anything like mine, it feels like “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”

We all struggle with our individual prayer lives. None of us visit our “prayer closets” (Matt. 6:6) as often as we would like. But what if there’s something missing in our lives that could jumpstart our prayer life more than anything else? Could it be that prayer with other Christians might ignite new desires and disciplines in our lives around prayer? What if the Lord’s intention is that his church would be a praying people? What if prayer is supposed to be the breath of the church?

The emphasis of the New Testament seems to be on the church praying, not individual Christians praying. For example, the Lord’s Prayer is full of plural pronouns, “Our Father in heaven…Give us this day our daily bread…And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Mt. 6:9-13). Jesus seems to intend that his followers pray model prayers like this together.

In Acts, there’s a consistent pattern of the earliest followers of Jesus praying together as a community. Prayer is the first thing the disciples did after witnessing Jesus ascend to heaven. Acts 1:14, “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” After Peter preached on Pentecost and thousands were converted to Christ, prayer is one of the first things these new Christians did together: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (2:42). Prayer is what ignited the church in Antioch to send the first missionaries, Paul and Barnabas, to the nations: “Then after fasting and praying they (the church) laid their hands on them and sent them off” (13:3).

From the very beginning, the church has been a praying community. It is who we are, not just what we do. This theme shows up in Paul’s letters too. He tells the church in Rome to “be constant in prayer” (12:12). The verb here is in the plural form, so this command is for the whole church, not just individual Christians. And in 1 Thessalonians Paul uses plural verbs when he says, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers” (1:2), and, “And we thank God constantly” (2:13), and, “Pray without ceasing” (5:17). The Pauline pattern is constant prayer within the community of faith.

What could this look like in our church? It starts with focused times of prayer in our weekly church gatherings. This is why we have extended prayer times in our training class, main worship gathering, and our small groups. These times of prayer anchor us as a community.

But prayer must also spill out spontaneously into our community at multiple levels. Prayer should be part of our normal life together in our friendships, family, and marriages. Being “constant in prayer” means, among other things, spontaneous praying for one another on the phone or over coffee or in the hallway after church. As Paul Miller says, “Anyone can ask a friend in the middle of a conversation, ‘Could we stop and pray about that?’”

Not just praying for but praying with one another must become like breathing for our church. It’s what will make us and keep us alive because it’s what links us to the Holy Spirit, “the giver of life,” as the Nicene Creed says.

Praying regularly with other believers could be what reignites your individual prayer life. Again, Paul Miller says, “Without a supportive, praying community, it’s easy to lose hope, to wear out in the work of prayer. Unless entire churches learn to pray together, individual prayer can lose steam.”

As we pray together, we build “prayer muscles” that strengthens our personal communion with the Lord. And as we pray together as a faith community, we are connecting ourselves with the only One who can truly change us. So may we as a church “pray without ceasing” together, watching and waiting for the Spirit of Jesus to work among us.

Praying For and With You,

Pastor John